Surgical removal of the packages is one option. But as doctors reported in the Canadian Journal of Surgery two years ago, surgical removal is far less likely than it used to be. Cocaine-filled packages can rupture during surgery, endangering patients, and there are other complications.

So more often now the cases are treated with laxatives and fluids in the intestines. The report in the Canandian journal looked back at the cases of 61 cocaine mules treated over a five-year period at a hospital near Heathrow Airport.

Fifty-six of the people were treated conservatively. The remaining five required surgery. Nobody died. The average length of treatment was 2.8 days.

What about the cocaine and the outcome for the patients?

Here's the straight dope from the doctors who wrote the paper:

Customs staff counted and secured the obtained packets. At no point during the conservatively managed patients' stays were hospital staff involved in the handling of cocaine packets because the laws regarding the handling of evidence require a secure chain of custody to guarantee the identity and integrity of the specimen, from collection through to reporting of the test results. In most cases, we were therefore unable to obtain first-hand information regarding the type of packaging used or the patients' conditions after passage.